Spirituality in the World of 07-Ghost
Spirituality in the World of 07-Ghost is defined mostly through the worship of several fictional deities. There is only one religion shown in the series. The nameless religion in the 07-Ghost series is heavily influenced by Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. Distinctive beliefs Concept of God The religion in the series is a polytheism (the belief in multiple deities), which is distinct from the religion of Christianity (a monotheism- belief there is only one God), the religion which many of its elements are based upon. However, the followers subscribe to the belief of a heirarchy of deities, where one God, the Cheif of Heaven, has power over the other Gods. The creator deity, the Chief of Heaven, is the closest thing to the one God of the abrahamic religions (Christianity), and he is responsible for the creation of the other Gods, such as the death deity, Verloren. Objectives of human life Those who follow the main religion of the 07-Ghost series believe that the creator, the Chief of Heaven, gives every soul three life objectives (dreams) to complete- which could be anything from making money to having a family. When the soul is born in a physical body, they do not remember these dreams, and discovering what they are and completeting them is what makes life enjoyable.Said by Castor in Kapitel 4. Followers stress the importance of the human completing these three wishes, and only these three wishes, themselves (without outside influences like Kor) as the Chief of Heaven greatest dislikes it when the 'equilibrium' is disrupted.In Kapitel 4 Frau says: "more than anything the Chief of Heaven hates when the equilibrium is destroyed. This ensures only the "flawlessly beautiful souls" enter Heaven. Souls that sought out unpromised wishes, and the Kor that grant these unpromised wishes, are punished.Kapitel 4 page 32. Once all three objectives have been completed, the body diesExpressed in the line: "You may reply with three dreams that will have risked your life" in Kapitel 4 and the soul is once again brought before the Chief of Heaven, and depending on how they have fulfilled these dreams (the good way e.g. starting a business that helps the community and make money, or the bad way e.g. sealing money) they will either remain in Heaven or be reincarnated in a new body in the hope they can fulfil their dreams in a better way. They believe that souls can be distinguished by their color.In Kapitel 7 Frau says: "this little guy's soul has the same colour as Mikage's" when speaking on how he knew it was Mikage. Practices Rituals In the world of 07-Ghost, believers stand before the statues of the Seven Ghosts in the Barsburg Church and pray to the statues. An example has been seen, when it was shown that people pray to the statue of Fest for love, or that their love will never falter. Festivals are also held to honour the Seven Ghosts. In the Barsburg Church, similar to the Catholic church, Mass is held, and attended by members of the clergy and the common folk alike. Scriptures The Barsburg Bible is the holy book of the nameless and only religion of the world of 07-Ghost, and consists of 77 volumes which contain 7700 scriptures. In the Bishop's Apprentice Exam, candidates are required to memorise the scriptures, 100 of which are chosen at random for the written portion of the exam. History There has been no clue in series as to when, and by whom the religion was founded, but the Chief of Heaven is widely regarded to be the first of the Gods created. The Chief of Heaven then had a daughter, Eve, though the circumstances surrounding this are unknown. The creation of Verloren Verloren is a Shinigami (a death God), and was created by the Chief of Heaven to preside over souls. Verloren's purpose was to sort the souls entering Heaven; allowing the pure souls to enter Heaven, but punishing the 'bad' souls by devouring them. Devouring the soul was a process that involved either sending the soul back down to earth to be reincarnated in a different body with no memories of their previous life, or sending them to purgatory.Frau has told Teito that Verloren released the bad souls in purgatory before he fled to Earth to find Eve. The worst souls which are irredeemable even by Verloren would be destroyed. The creation of the Ghosts The Seven Ghosts are amongst the earliest 'gods' created by the Chief of heaven and their existence dates back roughly 1000 years. At the time of their creation, humanity was already present. The legend of the ghosts tells that Verloren (the God of Death) was in love with the Chief of Heaven's daughter, Eve, but after her skeleton was found and her soul devoured, the Chief of Heaven accused Verloren of killing her. As Eve's soul being devoured automatically forced it to be sent to earth and reincarnated, Verloren escaped the heavens and fled to earth to find her reincarnation. Verloren began looking into the hearts of humans in order to find the soul that originally belonged to Eve. However as he looked, that person's heart was instantly tainted by his presence, and slowly slipped into despair. This meant those souls could not enter Heaven in this life because they were no longer pure, and they would be forced to reincarnate again once they died. When the Chief of Heaven noticed the consequences Verloren's actions had on those souls he looked into, he fashioned seven heavenly lights out of Verloren's fragments, each with one of Verloren's powers, and sent them to execute him. Schedel's crusade The ghosts drove Verloren to Seele, but were unable to destroy him. Faced with this, they instead used the powers of the two angel eyes (Mikhail and Raphael) to tear Verloren's soul from his body, in the hope that they never join again so he could never be at his full power. They sealed his physical body in Pandora's Box on earth, and used the Eye of Mikhail to make sure it could not escape from its prison. They sealed his soul using the Eye of Raphael, putting his soul in a human- and forcing it to undergo a process of constant reincarnation whenever the human body died- regardless of how the person had lived their life- so it could never enter Heaven again. Once the threat of Verloren was eliminated, the Seven Ghosts did not return to heaven; instead staying in the mortal world to serve as guardians. After sealing Verloren Now on earth, each Ghost assumed human form and went onto live human lives; they married humans, had children and died as humans. The Seven Ghosts and their human families went on to form the Seven Houses of God, and the Ghost's powers were passed onto their children, and further generations. The current ghosts are the descendants of the original seven. During the Raggs War and return of Verloren Around 990 years after Verloren had been sealed, the Eye of Raphael malfunctioned- resulting in Verloren's soul awakening (the human who was currently holding Verloren's soul regained all of Verloren's memories) and continued with Verloren's crusade against the Chief of Heaven. The descendants of the ghosts that first fought Verloren were again forced to re-group and fight. Currently, very little is known about the Ghosts' roles in the Raggs War. A member of the Raggs family (the God house of Vertrag) and person acting as the Ghost Vertrag, Fea Kreuz, was accused of stealing and escaping with Pandora's Box, and it was this theft that sparked the Raggs War. Pandora's Box had been moved into a human - meaning Verloren's body was at a risk of escaping if the human's soul is devoured by Verloren - so four Ghosts protected and guided Vertrag through the Seven God Houses in order to receive the cursed tickets and travel to the Land of Seele to destroy Verloren's body. This, coupled with the fact Verloren's soul had awakened, caused Ea and Landkarate to seperate from the others and go undercover into the military. However, the Ghosts were not successful in their mission, and it resulted in the death of one Ghost, Vertrag, whose reincarnation (Fea Kreuz) was killed by Ayanami and devoured by Verloren. The remaining six, however, escaped with their lives.Ayanami has not been seen with any of the remaining 6 Ghosts' powers after the Raggs War- showing Verloren has not devoured any of them. Around a decade later, Ayanami killed Lance and devoured him. Later, Ayanami captured Frau (Zehel), Labrador (Profe), Castor (Fest). He tried to devour Fest first, but he spat him out moments afterwards, because Verloren's present vessel (Ayanami) has reached its limit and in fact Ayanami has in fact been at the verge of dying after he devoured Lance. It was later hinted by Ea that Landkarte may have betrayed his duty. In Kapitel 88, it was shown that Landkarte wanted to erase both love and hate from the world, and fill the world with darkness. Modern history Even though Verloren had been sealed away for 1000 years, the Kor, his messengers made up of the souls that were tainted by his presence, continue to find and contact humans, and try to taint their souls by bringing them under his influence. Relation to real-world religions Most of the mythology in the series appears to be based heavily on the Catholic religion, with the Kor tempting people to 'sell their souls' in a similar way to how the devil is believed to do, Eve being the daughter of the Chief of Heaven, Verloren sharing some similarities with Lucifer, and medieval folklore, particularly from Germany, as many of the names of the Gods and other creatures are derived from German words, such as the word Vertrag (contract), Landkarte (map), Fest (tightly, fixed), Verloren (lost, goner), Mikhail, Raphael, Kor. Although there are many similarities between Catholicism and the mythology in the series, the mythology does not use the same deities. Trivia *It is worth noting that only one of the Ghosts, Profe, has been shown to have been reincarnated as a woman so far. This could mean that the Ghosts are more often reincarnated as men than as women. Also, since Verloren is male and the Ghosts are his fragments, it makes sense that the Ghosts have a greater tendency to be reborn male. *Another possible reason for the Ghosts being more often reincarnated as men is that the Ghosts are sanctioned to protect the Church. Since only men can become bishops, and nuns are not very influential within the Church, it is possible that the Ghosts are more likely to be reborn male so that there can be at least one Ghost protecting the Church at any one time. This is proven by the fact that in the previous generation of Ghosts, three male Ghost reincarnations were shown to be bishops (Fea Kreuz, Raggs War Fest and Raggs War Relikt), and four bishops (three after Lance was devoured) exist in the current generation. References Category:World of 07-Ghost